Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Passed?
He might as well have decked me in the gut.
My body curls toward the floor, a rush of adrenaline from all the excitement colliding with the blow of grief.
No, fucking no.
“You’re lying!” I call out as tears spring from my eyes.
He kneels beside me, placing his hand on the back of my head. I struggle against his hold, but he pins my head down, stroking his thumb across my flesh, stirring goose bumps. “Oh, Zane, I really wish I were lying. He was so ripe and beautiful. It was a waste, but he was getting tired. All that beauty was rotting away. Beauty is such a fragile thing. You’ll see that for yourself.”
It’s not true. It can’t be true. “Fuck you!” I call out, trying not to show emotion, but that only makes me cringe as more tears burst from my eyes. “You piece of shit!”
I tell myself it’s a vicious lie to terrorize me, but in my heart, I already know the truth. I’ve known the truth for a while now.
He studies my gun. “Oh, these things have safeties, don’t they? There it is. Can’t make a rookie mistake like that, right?”
Said like a man who’s never managed a gun before.
“I was right about you all this fucking time,” I spit out.
“You proud of yourself for that one? Enjoy the victory while you can.”
“You were pretty fucking obvious when I went to talk to you at that Habitat build.”
“I was surprised and, I must admit, impressed with you, Zane. Although, that’s when I really figured out your weakness.”
He’s poking, and I don’t mind taking the bait if it’ll buy me time.
“What?” I ask.
“How easy it would be to play this game with you.”
Game?
He lies down beside me so that we’re face-to-face.
“Oh, my sweet Zane,” he says, reaching out to me, but stops short of my face before licking his lips. “You were so easy to play. And it was so much fun too.”
“What are you on about?”
“You’re smart, Zane. That’s something I’ve noticed about you. But you weren’t smart enough for me. Because you guessed wrong. I wasn’t after Leif. I was after you.”
“The hell?”
“You didn’t think it was convenient that you ran into that post on a Reddit forum, displaying Leif’s note?”
“You did that?”
“I found Leif at the library I frequent, which I’m assuming you already pieced together. A beautiful specimen to catch your attention. I sent him that note, knowing there was already a post about the one I sent Mike.
“I thought I might have to spread a rumor on that forum to lead you to Leif. Say that a friend of his mentioned it, but he made it even easier when he posted to social media. Then I just posted that to the Reddit forum. As I expected, you gravitated right to it because you weren’t going to let it go. My hope was to keep you obsessed, have you going through your own little investigation again—the cops would just assume you were having another mental-health crisis. I must admit, I underestimated you. I didn’t realize you’d go as far as renting a place next to Leif to watch him. I had to get creative with my plan, but I love a challenge.”
A plan? Fuck.
“That’s why I didn’t find you at Leif’s place,” I say. “You weren’t there for him. You were there to distract me.”
“Very good. You left your door open, so I came in and set up a mic in here.”
Which I already know, you fucking moron.
“Then I looked on your computer and saw where you had the security cameras set up, and I noticed you were so focused on protecting him that your weakness was you hadn’t thought nearly enough about how to defend yourself. There’s a blind spot right from your neighbors to your basement door. Maybe if you’d given more thought to that, we wouldn’t be in this mess now. Clearly, you didn’t consider that because that’s how I skirted around your little security to break in today.”
“What did you do to Mike?” I ask, my tears warm against my cheeks.
“You’ll find out. I like that you’re a crier. He cried too.”
He reaches for my face again, and I pull away.
“You two are such a beautiful couple. What a beautiful way for two people to meet. Something poetic about it, really. It was an honor to listen to you enjoying each other’s bodies. I would have come much sooner if I didn’t get so much pleasure out of every fuck, every time I heard you call out his name. Speaking of your boyfriend, I don’t think it’s right to do this without him.” He pushes to his feet and grabs my cellphone from the bed.
“You motherfucker!” I call out.
“We’ll text him to come on over. How does that sound?”
“This is between you and me. You said it yourself. Leave him out of it!”